Luke 8:22–39

0:00 You might remember a few weeks ago, three or four weeks ago, I think, we started the sermon out with talking about Fyodor Dostoyevsky's book, The Brothers Karamazov, and the story he tells about the Grand Inquisitors. This story about how Jesus, at one point, one of the Brothers Karamazov is telling this story about how Jesus comes back to 16th century Seville and he starts to do the things that Jesus does. He heals people, he teaches, he does all these kinds of things. and there's this old Roman Catholic bishop who's known as the Grand Inquisitor who has Jesus arrested and basically tells him, look, you are not welcome here. You did things wrong when you came into the world the first time and now we, the Roman Catholic Church, have corrected your work and we don't need you anymore. Well, this morning I want to take you back to that story today, the Grand Inquisitor, because I think as striking as that statement from the Grand Inquisitor really was, there's an even deeper, more striking question that lurks underneath it. See, right before that

1:04 story, the Grand Inquisitor happens in chapter 5 of this book, The Brothers Karamazov, and right before that, in chapter 4, one of the brothers, whose name is Ivan, he's the intellectual brother, he's the brother that's resisting Christianity, and he's talking to his other brother about why he rejects Christianity, he lays out in chapter 4 his case against God. And the case that he makes is striking because it's not a philosophical case. It's not a bunch of reasons put together, you know, here are five reasons for why I don't believe in God, or I don't think it works philosophically, I don't think it works intellectually. It's not that at all. It's a visceral case that he makes. See, he's been, over the years, he says, collecting stories, basically, of people being cruel to children. And he says they're real stories, the things that he's experienced in his own life. And the argument that he makes against God is devastating because it's so simple and unexpected. You see, his conclusion is he doesn't deny that God exists. He doesn't even deny that

2:05 there may be coming a day where there could be some ultimate harmony, he calls it, that comes to pass where all the suffering makes sense, where the good at the end outweighs the suffering. He says, I don't deny that at all. What he says is just that even if all that stuff is true, even if there is a God, even if there is a day coming, the price is just too high. It's not God, he says, that I don't accept. It's the world he created that I don't accept and cannot agree to accept.

2:41 And then he tells the Inquisitor's story in chapter 5. Christ comes back to this 16th century city of Seville, Spain. He heals people. He raises a child from the dead. The Grand Inquisitor has him arrested and visits him in his cell. And then you get this long monologue in which the Inquisitor is basically accusing Jesus of giving humanity a bunch of stuff that it didn't need. He says, look, you gave the world freedom. You gave the world spiritual freedom. You released their bondage from sin. But that's not what they needed, Jesus. all they really needed was a little bread provided to them and a little entertainment in the form of smells and bells.

3:18 And we, the Catholic Church, have done that a whole lot better than you. He just goes on and on and on and on. But the striking thing about the story is that throughout the entire thing, Jesus says nothing. Not a word. It's kind of just like the Gospels. He didn't say anything. In fact, the Inquisitor begs Jesus to speak. He says, if you would even give me bitter words, that would be better than this silence you're giving me right now. But he gets nothing. And Jesus' only response at the end of the chapter is to kiss the old man, Dostoevsky says, on his old bloodless lips.

3:57 And then he walks out. And the Inquisitor yells after him, leave. And never, ever return. Now, here's the point that lies underneath all of that. In Ivan's mind, this brother that's telling this story, that's rejecting God, that's staring evil in the face. And then he tells this story about a silent Jesus. What he's doing, in his mind, Jesus has not just been silent for one night in Seville.

4:27 He's been silent for centuries. And the real question, deep down in Ivan's heart, the one that's tearing him apart, that's causing him to reject everything, is basically this. Is there anybody in the universe with the power to stop evil and the willingness to use it? Is there anybody in the universe with the power, the authority to face up to and stop evil and also the willingness to use that power?

5:00 Well, that's what we're going to be talking about today as we look at another section of Luke chapter 8. We're going to be looking at two stories today in Luke chapter 8, kind of the second third of that chapter. And we're going to be reading from verse 22 all the way down through verse 39. So turn with me if you've got a Bible to Luke chapter 8, and I'm going to start reading in verse 22. Here's what Luke tells us. One day, Jesus got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, Let us go across to the other side of the lake. And so they set out. And as they sailed, he fell asleep.

5:33 And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, Master, Master, we are perishing. He awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, Where is your faith? And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, Who then is this that he commands even winds and water? And they obey him. Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons.

6:08 For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house, but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert. Jesus then asked him, What is your name? And he said, Legion, for many demons had entered him.

6:40 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these, so he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.

7:12 And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. And so he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. All right, so what do you think we're dealing with here in these two stories, and why do we put them together into one sermon?

7:48 I mean, aren't they talking about two extremely different things? You've got Jesus's power over nature, and then you've got his power over the spiritual realm demons, and so how are we going to put these two things together. Because at first glance, they look like just very, very different things. But I want to try to convince you this morning, and I don't think it'll be all that hard, that they're not actually talking about two different things. They're talking about Jesus's authority in one particular realm, and they're both dealing with that. Okay, so what word does Luke use in verse 24 for what Jesus does to the storm? Look down at verse 24 in your Bibles. All your heads ought to be down in your Bible. That's you too. Put your head down. Look at your Bible.

8:30 24. What word does Luke use for what Jesus does to the storm? He rebukes it. He fusses at it, right? He commands it with a rebuke. Stop that. Now, why is that important? Well, leave your finger in Luke chapter 8, but turn back to chapter 4 and look at verse 35. Here we're dealing with another man that's been possessed by a demon, and look what Jesus does to the demon. Verse 35, Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent and come out of him. So do you see the Do you see the point here? Do you see what's going on? When Jesus rebukes the storm, he's doing the same thing that he does to demons. So what that ought to tell you and what Luke is trying to flag you to is that Jesus is not just doing weather management here. He's not just managing the

9:31 weather. He's not just showing off his authority over the natural world. He's exercising the same authority over that storm that he exercised over that demon. Now, why is that important? Well, what you've got to understand, and we're going to talk about this more later, is that in the Bible, the sea, the water, everything that happens on the water, is way more than just water. It's actually symbolic. It's the domain of chaos and death and evil. It's in various places in the Old Testament.

10:01 It's called the abyss. It's the dwelling place of Leviathan, whom Isaiah, in Isaiah 27, 1, identifies as the dragon the serpent which is to say satan so when jesus calms the storm and in john when he actually walks on top of the water it's not just a story about his authority over creation it's a it's a story about his authority over evil just like the story of the demon-possessed guy both of these stories then tell us the same thing it shows us the same picture of authority it's Jesus' divine authority, not just over nature, but over evil, over Satan.

10:40 And it's displayed in two arenas, this great cosmic arena of the storm and the sea and all the rest of it. And then, in the second story, in the devastatingly personal, as he kicks the demons out of this demon-possessed man. And the question that runs through the whole thing is basically what the disciples ask once the storm is still. there in verse 25 who then is this that has this kind of authority over evil that's what drives the whole thing and it's the question that you have to answer and I have to answer today and every day of our lives so here's here's the main idea here's the thing that I think Luke wants to get across to us and here's the thing that I want to try to therefore get across to us as a congregation as we listen to this sermon there are plenty of reasons in this world to be afraid there are plenty of reasons in this world to be afraid and you could list them all off but even in the midst of all that trust the one who has absolute authority over every dark power

11:42 that threatens you lots of reasons to be afraid there are things to be afraid of on the on the global scale there are things to be afraid of in the in the personal scale but even in the midst of all that trust in the one who has absolute authority over every dark thing that threatens you. That's where we're going. Three points to the sermon today. Number one, we're going to look at the story of Jesus calming the storm. Number two, we're going to look at the story of the demoniac and then number three we'll talk about later. But number one, the Lord of the deep. Number two, the restorer of the destroyed. And number three, I'm not going to give it to you yet because I want you sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what I'm going to say. So I'll give it to you at the end. So number one, the Lord of the deep. Number two, the restorer of the destroyed. And number three it's a surprise number one so looking at verses 22 to 25 the lord of the deep so as is really typical of him luke doesn't tell us exactly when this happened but the story opens basically with jesus and his disciples heading across the sea of galilee so look with me at verse 22 says

12:47 one day he got into a boat with his disciples one day that's the you know that's luke's thing he takes stories from sort of all over jesus's ministry sticks them together so that the theme is theological, not so much chronological. So he'll say things just like, one day, right? He doesn't even specify when it was. There's no connection to anything before or after. It's just, here's a story, right? So one day he got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them, let's go across to the other side of the lake. And so they set out. And as they sailed, he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filling with water and were in danger. So simple story. He tells them to get into the boat. We're going to cross over to the other side. It's important, I think, that he's the one that initiates the crossing. I mean, you've got to ask the question, why does he want them in the boat in the first place? They're about to go from Jewish lands across the lake, as they called it, across the Sea of Galilee, to Gentile lands. Jesus seems to be on a mission to do something. He seems to have a goal in mind. You don't just get on a boat and head off across the sea if you don't have a goal in mind. So Jesus initiates. He's got a goal. They get into

13:52 the boat and they head out. And then there is this sudden violent squall that hits the boat. And this is not just any storm. I mean Luke, if you look at it, the English translation doesn't quite capture it, but he basically calls it a windstorm of wind. That's what he calls it. A windstorm of wind. Matthew actually says that it was an earthquake storm. He uses the word seismos, like seismic. And he says this was a storm that was seismic in its violence and in its scale.

14:24 But however you think about it, what's happening here is that this is a storm that swept in probably literally within a few seconds and could swamp a boat in just a few minutes as the waves kick up and the wind kicks up. And the Sea of Galilee was known for this kind of thing. It wasn't all that surprising a thing. So as big a storm as it was, it wasn't that surprising. And the reason is because the Sea of Galilee actually sits down in a basin, 700 feet below sea level. And it's surrounded by a ring of mountains that have these ravines, natural ravines that are cut into it.

14:59 And so when the wind starts to get kicked up on the higher elevations, the winds will flow down through those ravines from several different directions. And it kicks the water up in a way that's just unusual. So you get crazy violent storms about that. And every fiber of the disciples being tells them that they're about to die. And where's Jesus in all of this? Well, he's asleep. He's in the back of the boat.

15:31 He's tired. And he's taking a nap. Now, I don't know about you, but as I read that and kind of think about the story, if I kind of put myself in a movie in the story and kind of watch it, there's something that is both comforting and maddening. about the fact that Jesus is asleep, isn't there? I mean, on the one hand, he's asleep, of course, because he didn't have to worry about anything. He knows who's in control. He knows who owns the wind and the waves, and so it doesn't really matter what's happening around him. He's just asleep. But the disciples, they don't see it that way at all.

16:03 This boat is being kicked up and back and forth, and water is coming over the top of it and swamping it, and it's filling up with water, the text says. And the teacher, the guy that they've given their lives to, is unconscious. I mean, you can hear the echo of Ivan's question right there, can't you? Isn't there anybody with authority over this? And does he care enough to act? And so they ask him, teacher, do you not care?

16:38 Don't you care that we are perishing? it's interesting, isn't it, that they, when the storm kicks up, they go to Jesus. And why do they go to Jesus? Why do they say, Master, Master, we are perishing? Why do they appeal to Jesus? One of the other gospels tells us that they actually look at Jesus once he's awake, and they say, Lord, save! And what were they expecting? I mean, they knew enough about Jesus to know that he could do something. I mean, maybe he could make the boat go faster to get across the lake, Maybe he could just exercise some kind of spiritual authority and create a shield around them.

17:18 They knew enough about him that they thought he could do something. But they had no idea what he was about to do. Look at verse 24. They went and woke him saying, Master, we are perishing. And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves and they ceased and there was a calm. Now don't read past that too quickly. Luke is very economical in his words. All four Gospels, in fact, are very economical in their words. They don't give you a whole lot of detail.

17:49 But you've got to learn to kind of see it in your mind's eye. You've got to watch the thing play out. Jesus stands up and they say, Master, don't you care that we're perishing? And he stands up on the bow of the boat and he rebukes the wind and the waves. Fusses at it. Stop it, all of you. You ever tried that? I mean, we have some pretty good squalls here in Louisville. There are tornadoes occasionally that come into the city. You ever tried to stand in front of a tornado and just say, stop it! Doesn't work, does it?

18:24 But here, everything goes calm. Like in an instant, it goes calm. Now, don't underestimate that. I mean, every fisherman on the Sea of Galilee knew what it was like when a storm was dying down. They had seen that a thousand times, and they knew what it looked like. And it's nothing all that spectacular. The wind just starts to ease up a little bit. The rain is not falling as hard. The waves are still chopping and crashing, but a little bit less over minutes. And then when everything goes calm and the clouds part, you just start bailing out the boat.

18:59 But that's not what happened here. This was not a gradual calming of the storm. It wasn't just a passing of the front that was coming through. The wind and the waves stopped instantly. Stop it. And it did. The image I have is of my stupid little dog. He can be running through the house like a maniac, but when he hears my voice going, Riggins, stop, his eyes go wide and his feet dig in and he slides 10 feet across the wooden floor because he's trying to stop.

19:34 He just can't. But it's instantaneous when he hears my voice because he knows that I have authority over him and I'll kick him out of the house if he doesn't. And that's what the storm did. It stopped in an instant when it heard the voice of its master. And that word rebuked is the language of authority over evil. You see the point here? Jesus is not just solving a weather problem. He's not just showing that he has power over creation. He's asserting dominion over the sea, which is the seat of evil itself.

20:08 just by the way that's why revelation tells us at the end if you've never if you've ever known this it's why revelation tells us at the very end that there will be no sea in the new heavens and the new earth now there are other places in the bible that say the new heavens and the new earth is going to have ships so how can you have no sea are they like land ships what are we talking about here well no it's symbolic revelation has symbols all over the place and once revelation picks up this idea of the sea as the throne of satan as the place of chaos and death and the abyss the first thing it shows you is that the saints of god in chapter 15 are standing on top of the sea right they've conquered it just like jesus did when he walked on the water and and the sea is shot through with light the the the fire of judgment is in the sea and then at the end there is no sea because evil has been finally destroyed.

21:02 Well, look at verse 25, what they say in response to this. He said to them, where is your faith? And they were afraid and they marveled and they said to one another, who then is this? Who is this? That he commands even winds and water and they obey him. Nobody can do that. it's impossible they ask that question as if it's a like you know true unsolved mystery like they have no idea who it is that commands the wind and the waves and they obey him but for anybody who knew the Old Testament and these guys knew the Old Testament they're not asking this question as if it's a true mystery to them they're coming to a realization about who Jesus is because they know their Old Testament and therefore it's not much of a mystery at all who can command the wind and the waves and they obey. Psalm 107, he made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were

22:05 hushed. Psalm 65, the one who stills the roaring of the seas. Psalm 89, you rule the raging of the sea. When its waves rise, you still them. Psalm 104, at your rebuke, the seas fled. Who are all those psalms talking about? Yahweh. They're talking about God and God alone. They're talking about the one, only, and true God.

22:36 Every single one of them. Every one of those psalms recognizes that authority over the sea, authority over the waves, authority over the storm, belongs to one person and one person only. The creator God of Israel. And now here's Jesus doing exactly what those Psalms describe. See, that's what's clicking. When they say, who then is this that does this? It's not a mystery. It's clicking for them. This guy who five seconds before was asleep on the cushion is the God who made the sea.

23:19 Just before they have that realization, though, he asks them just a stinging question in 25. Where is your faith? Where's your faith? Now, in understanding that, you have to be careful with it. He's not saying to the disciples, you guys are being silly. You should not have been scared at all. He's not telling them to deny reality. He's not telling them to deny or press down the emotions that just come when things happen.

23:54 And through the years I've seen Christians do that a lot, right? They'll be in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death. And the only thing that can come out of their lips in the face of death, in the face of cancer, in the face of this or that is just, it's all fine because God is in control. Look at the smile on my face. I'm really fine. Jesus doesn't want us to deny reality like that. there are things in this world that are scary. There are things in this world that hurt. There are things in this world that are deeply sad. And Jesus doesn't deny that. What he's saying is, look, you guys, you, the disciples, have been with me for a very long time. You know me. You know what I'm capable of. So even when scary things are happening, even when the emotion is sadness or fear or whatever, even when all that's happening, you should have remembered who's in the boat with you. You should have remembered, even in the midst of the fear, who's in the boat. So it's

24:54 not a rebuke of the emotion that naturally comes. It's a rebuke of their non-recognition of Him. You know, I've wondered often what that question did to them, because once the storm stops, I mean, it said that the boat was filling with water. And so there's a lot of work to be done. It probably took them, you know, a couple of hours at least. You had 13 of them there. It probably took them a couple of hours just to bail the boat out. And I've often wondered, in the calm, as they're doing the work of getting the boat back on the surface of the water, I wonder if Jesus's question came back to them with new force. I bet they did the work in silence. I bet they were thinking about that question and it was coming back with with new teeth yeah yeah why why were we afraid why did we have so little faith in Jesus when push came to shove why did our faith fail I mean obviously that wasn't a fleeting question to them right I mean they obviously thought about it for a long time

25:57 I mean after all it's written down in this book I mean Peter thought about it for a long time because he relayed this story to Luke who then wrote it down. I don't know what they thought. But it seems to me that their faith failed. It was weak and insufficient at a few points. And those points happen to be the same points where our faith tends to fail too. So to put it quickly, I think the disciples in this moment had insufficient faith in Jesus' presence, his power, and his promises.

26:35 I genuinely apologize for the three Ps. It was not deliberate. That's just the way it worked. I did not go looking for those Ps. They had insufficient faith in his presence. And they should have realized how significant it was that Jesus, who they knew from long experience, was no ordinary man. They should have realized how significant it was that he was with them on the boat. and that should have begun cutting the root of their panic, but they forgot that, and it caused them, therefore, to lose themselves. It's the same thing for us. When in your life do you start to panic? I think most of us kind of have it together, right? We can kind of keep things tied up neatly in our lives most of the time, but there are times in life when things happen, and we start to panic.

27:22 When is that? When do you start to panic? Well, I think for most of us, we start to panic when we think that we are in it alone. That whatever trouble we're going through, whatever's threatening to capsize our lives at any moment or another, when we think our strength and ability to quote-unquote handle it has been exhausted, there's nothing else we can do, and oh my gosh, it's still not handled. That's when we tend to panic. You know how to cut that off? You know how to start dripping medicine into that so that the panic begins to subside?

27:57 it's to remember who it is that said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will be with you until the very end of the age. Friends, that's not just words. It's not just rhetoric. It's not just a hallmark card that he's giving them as he's headed off to his father's right hand side. It's not what it is. It's a real promise and it means something. I mean, no, you can't. You can't see him but you can know that he cares for you and you can know that there's no storm outside his sovereign control the disciples panicked because they forgot who was with them don't do that second they had insufficient faith in jesus's power i mean they should have been able to answer that question. What man is this? Who then is this? I mean who is it in the Bible who says

28:57 this far, who says to the waves, this far shall you go and no further. Here is where your proud waves halt. Who says that? God Almighty and God Almighty alone. See when Jesus rebuked the sea and when the sea bowed down to him in an instant it wasn't bowing to just a miracle worker it wasn't bowing to someone who could just do some magic tricks that are really impressive it was bowing to its creator to the king of all the universe it recognized the voice that brought it into being and set its limits, and it bowed. Brothers and sisters, it's good, I think, and it helps to cut the root of panic in our lives. It helps to build up faith. It is good for us to remember who it is we worship. We can sometimes, as Christians, treat the Lord Jesus Christ, the King

30:05 of kings and the Lord of lords so flipply. We read a verse in the Bible where Jesus calls us his friend and we think, oh, well, that's it. That's the whole relationship. Me and Jesus are buds. We're peers. Or we read another one where the Bible invites us to call God Abba, Father, Daddy. And so we think that's the extent of the relationship between us and God. He is our daddy.

30:37 And we treat him as such. We treat him as cute. Not as the king of kings and the Lord of lords. But friends, it is good for us to pray sometimes in a tone and with a heart that does not address God as daddy, but as Lord God almighty with awe not with familiarity it's good for us to meditate sometimes not on how similar we are to God but on how inexpressibly far above us he is it's good for us to sing sometimes not so much in celebration but in wonder and why is that why is it good for us to do that it's because the more you understand

31:40 of his power the more there is to trust the more you understand of his power the deeper you get that down into your heart the more there is to trust they also had insufficient faith in his promises. Here's what I mean by that. If they'd really understood what Jesus was about, if they understood what he had come into the world to do, if they'd understood what he promised he was going to do, what his mission was, that he was going to save his people from their sins, that he's the suffering servant of Isaiah, then they would have put all that together and they would have realized, oh, it is unthinkable that Jesus is going to die out here in a boat accident. It's not going to happen. If I really understand who he is and what he said he's going to do and how he's going to fulfill Isaiah 53 and all these other scriptures. It's unthinkable that he's going to die in a boat accident. But they lost sight of what Jesus was all about. They lost sight of what he was doing.

32:35 And so they panicked. Friends, that's a good lesson for you too. Don't lose sight of what Jesus has promised to do. I mean, I'll just give you one example, right? What is Jesus about in all the things that hurt in this life? What is he doing with the things that hurt? There are about a half a dozen places in the New Testament that tell us what Jesus is about when it comes to the hurts in your life. He's making you a more mature Christian. That's what they're about. Don't lose sight of that. If you think Jesus doesn't know what he's doing with the things in your life that hurt, you'll panic. But if you remember, my God, my God who is the King of kings and Lord of lords has a purpose for these things you'll trust that insufficient faith in his presence and his power and in his promises that i think is what jesus rebukes them for they should have realized that the king of creation was present with them and that he had his purposes for them and for the

33:41 world and if they had realized all of that they would not have panicked like they did look friend to experience and encounter all kinds of evil in this world. You're going to run into things in this world that are just flat, wicked. You're going to run into evil people. You're going to run into evil systems. You're going to run into natural evil like tornadoes and hurricanes. You may even run into evil things, beings like demons. It doesn't always come at you in the way you expect, but here's what you need to carry with you through all of that. You need to pack this deep into your heart.

34:14 The Lord who stood up on the prow of that boat and spoke one word and the chaos of the abyss bowed down at his feet, that Lord is with you and he cares about you and he's doing something with the stuff in your life. If that's true, if that's true, then what exactly is there in all the universe that's going to have the power to take you out? Nothing. Number two, not just the Lord of the deep, but number two, the restorer of the destroyed.

34:51 The restorer of the destroyed. So the storm finishes. Jesus and the disciples arrive in this country of the Gerasenes. And Jesus basically steps off the boat into a nightmare. Look at 26. So they sail to the country of the Gerasenes, which is the opposite side of the lake from Galilee. when Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house, but among the tombs. Now stop for a second, and I want you to take in the details, because every one of these details that Luke gives us matters. So he's got no clothes, right? He hadn't worn clothes for a long time. Basically, he's been stripped of the dignity that God gave humanity in the Garden of Eden. Once humanity was exposed because of their sin God clothes Adam and Eve and humans have been clothed it's part of our our dignity it's part of our dignity to cover up our our shame and this man has been stripped of that dignity he's got no home he's got no people around him he's been completely isolated from

35:52 other human beings no relationships at all and then above all notice where he lives he didn't live in a house he lives among the tombs he lives in the place of the dead it's as if the demons have driven him to the graveyard before they could get his body to die. They want him in that graveyard as quick as possible. So you see what the demons have done? You see what the demons did to him when they got a hold of him? Every detail Luke gives us there is a systematic reversal of what God gave humanity in creation.

36:28 It's a reversal of it. Clothing, community, reason, life. It's all the marks of the imago dei, of being made in the image of God. We are meant to live with dignity among other image bearers of God. And all of that's been stripped away from this guy. One by one by one, the demons stripped him until what's left is barely human. This guy's been animalized. He's been pushed down from the dignity of a person made in God's image to something that the townspeople now try to chain up like a wild animal.

37:01 Friends, that's what evil does when it gets its hands on a person. It doesn't just hurt you. It unmakes you. It decreates you as an image bearer of God. Look at 28. When this man saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torment me. For he commanded the unclean spirit to come out.

37:33 For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles. But he'd break them and be driven by the demon into the desert. And Jesus asked him, what's your name? And he said, legion, for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. So Jesus steps off the boat and it seems like the guy is waiting on him. It makes you wonder if that's why he set out in the first place across the lake, right? The man falls down before him and cries out, what do you have to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God?

38:04 Now, we've seen this before, back in Luke chapter 4. This has already happened. Jesus encounters a demon, and the demon says almost exactly the same thing. Now, the phrase, what have you to do with me, is a Hebrew saying. Lots of people would have said it, and it basically means, leave me alone, go away, right? So, you know, if you're studying or something, and somebody's coming up and pestering you, what do you have to do with me? And it means, go away. That's all that means. But notice too that the demon knows exactly who Jesus is. He knows who Jesus is.

38:35 The disciples had just asked this question, who is this? And they didn't want to give it a straight answer. The demons don't have any confusion about it at all. They know who this guy is. This is the son of the most high God. When Jesus asks their name, it's a striking answer. He says, our name is Legion. Now, what does that mean? Well, a legion in the Roman army was an organization of 6,000 Roman soldiers.

39:09 6,000 of them. And the demon says, we are legion. Luke even tells us many, many demons had occupied him. This is not just a possession. It's a full-scale occupation by an army of hell. now I want to pause on this for just a second I wonder what you think about that I wonder what you think about this whole idea of demons of demons a whole army of them occupying a man like this and maybe you think that's just that's just crazy right maybe you just think that the biblical authors and the people that were looking at it actually they were just looking at a person who had schizophrenia and they just misdiagnosed it as something else.

39:59 But it's crazy to think that there are demons. Friend, if that's what you think, I would encourage you to read the accounts more carefully. This is not mental illness. This is not schizophrenia. This is not bipolar disorder. It is something much, much worse. It is hell trying to destroy a man. The Bible teaches us that there are spiritual forces out there that are bent on destroying you. If you're not a Christian, those forces of hell are bent on taking you to hell right along with them.

40:33 And if you're a Christian, they know they can't do that, but they are in the business of destroying you and making you useless for the kingdom of God. There are demons. There is a Satan. And it's something we must be aware of because the Bible tells us. And most of us, I think, get this wrong in one of two different directions. C.S. Lewis is an author who wrote a book called The Screwtape Letters where he actually plays the part of a demon who's teaching his young nephew demon how to demonize Christians.

41:06 And he's giving him lessons about what to do to be an effective demon. It's a fascinating book. But he basically says in the introduction to that book that people fall into two equal and opposite errors. So some people just disbelieve in demons entirely. Or, on the other hand, they believe in demons but they fall into an unhealthy obsession with the demonic. And the devil, Lewis said, is equally pleased with both. He's fine with it. He's good if you don't believe in demons because that makes you an easy target. He's also fine if you get obsessed with the demonic because it's going to make you useless for the kingdom of God.

41:44 So let me just be direct with you. What's happening to this guy is real. It's not a misdiagnosis of a mental illness. Spiritual evil is real. It's not a metaphor. It's not psychology. It's not something to play with. I think sometimes Christians play with hell. We have a little fun one night with Ouija boards. We dabble in witchcraft or tarot cards or the occult.

42:19 Friends, none of those things, none of those things are playthings. They are doors to hell. And if you play with them, if you knock on hell's door with a Ouija board night, or playing with tarot cards, or reading about witchcraft, or any of that stuff, if you knock on the door of hell, don't be surprised if they open the door one day. These things are real, and you have to take them seriously. But don't get obsessed with it either. Don't see demons in every doorknob, and especially for crying out loud, don't get so obsessed with the demonic that you start to blame demons for your own disobedience to God.

43:03 One of the world's favorite things to say, one of its favorite excuses is, you could probably say it for me, the devil made me do it. That's what we want to say. Why did you do that? The devil made me do it. No, he didn't. I mean, think about it. Satan is not omnipresent like God. He can't be everywhere all at once. He has to deal with one person at a time. And there are 8 billion of us on the planet. And odds are, Satan doesn't have time for you. That's just your own sin doing that.

43:37 It's not the devil. And what you need to do is not blame the devil for it. Just own it and repent of it. Well, in verses 31 to 33, the action moves really fast. The demons beg Jesus not to send them into the abyss. That's a kind of prison for Satan and his demons. And they ask instead if they can go into a herd of pigs instead. So Jesus permits it. The pigs rush headlong down the bank into the lake, and they all drown. Now, why does Jesus let them do that? Why doesn't he just send them into the abyss rather than allowing them to go into the pigs?

44:11 Well, look at what happens because it's teaching. It's teaching things. The instant the demons enter the pigs, what happens? It's like a fast-forwarding of what they're doing with the man who's made in the image of God. And so there's probably a little bit of break on it. There's a little bit of resistance. But as soon as they go into a creature that's not made in the image of God, there's no resistance, and it's a headlong rush into destruction. That's what demons do. That's what they were doing to this man all along. The pigs just fast-forwarded it and made it visible.

44:43 The only reason this guy isn't dead already is because Jesus crossed the lake and walked into a graveyard to go get him. And look now at 35, because it shows us the result of all this. The man is sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. Sitting at the feet of Jesus, submitted to the king, clothed, got his dignity back, and in his right mind. His reason is restored. See, every single thing that evil took, Jesus restored. He was naked. He is now clothed. He was out of his mind, now he's got his reason back.

45:15 He was among the dead, now he's sitting at the feet of the author of life. So did Jesus heal this guy? Yeah, of course he did. But it's more than just healing him. He recreated the man. The Imago Dei is put back together by the one who gave it in the first place. Look, some of you here look at this man and you see something familiar. I mean, true, yeah, maybe your situation isn't quite so dramatic. You're not living in a graveyard.

45:46 You're not cutting yourself with rocks. Some of the other gospels tell us that. But you basically know deep down in your heart that sin has done exactly the same kind of work on you. It's been unmaking you. It's been stripping away the person God made you to be, stripping away your integrity, your peace, your relationships, everything. And you've been trying to manage that deconstruction the same way the townspeople we're trying to manage this demon-possessed guy. You just keep it as far away as you can. You try not to think about it.

46:16 You chain it up when you need to. You walk around the graveyard so that you don't have to face up to it. But the problem is you can't fix it. You're not going to be able to fix it. This dude broke the chains and shackles every time they tried to put them on him. And the evil and the sin that's been deconstructing and decreating you will break any shackles you try to put on it. But look what Jesus did. look what he did he didn't wait for this guy to come find him he said let's get in the boat and go across the lake on the way i'm going to show you the kind of authority that i have and he went and got him because that's what jesus does he pursues destroyed people and he recreates them he remakes them out of nothing so friend is that is that you today if so i need you to hear me this is what jesus came for he came for people like you it's not the righteous who need a savior

47:20 it's the destroyed he lived the life you couldn't live he died the death that your sin deserved and He rose so that you could be made new, so that you could be recreated. So trust him. Come to him exactly the same way this man came, broken, nothing to offer. And let Jesus do what only Jesus can do. He's the restorer of the destroyed. Thank God. Well, I told you I'd give you the last point when we came there, and here we are.

47:53 In some ways, I think this last little bit is the most unsettling part of the story because it puts the pressure squarely on us. It's not just a story anymore. It's a challenge because we have to come to terms with, number three, the choice we face. The choice we face. That's number three. If the storm shows what Jesus can do at the cosmic level and the demoniac shows what he does at the personal level with one destroyed person, And the response of the people in 34 to 39 basically confronts us with a choice.

48:25 What are we going to do with this Jesus and his authority over evil? What do we do now? You and me. And look down at that, 34 to 37. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled, told it in the city and in the country. And then the people went out to see what had happened. And they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. And then, after all that, then, all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to depart from them.

49:01 For they were seized with great fear, and so he got into the boat, and he went away. Why on earth do they do that? I mean, they have just seen something that any of us would be amazed to see. The sovereign Lord of the universe has just liberated a human being from a legion-sized army of demons. And what is their response? We need you to go away now. Thank you. Why? Well, I think it's two things.

49:35 I mean, first of all, these people had just adjusted to the darkness. That's what had happened. They just adjusted to it. They'd been living with this screaming demon-possessed man in their graveyard for a long time. and they just figured out ways to cope. You don't go to the graveyard. You walk around it if you have to get to the other side of it. And if things get really bad, you chain him up for a little while until he breaks the chains, but at least it'll keep him quiet for a little while. It wasn't, it turns out, the evil that really bothered them.

50:10 It was just the disruption, the upheaval, the breaking of their routine. now think about whether that's you because some of you have been living with something dark for so long that you've made peace with it and a thought of Jesus actually overturning everything is actually more frightening to you than just leaving it be and maybe it's some sin pattern that you've been nursing for years you know what's wrong but at least you know how it works you know the rhythms of it and the idea of jesus actually ripping that thing out of your life terrifies you because you don't even know who you would be without it maybe it's a relationship maybe it's a boyfriend or a girlfriend that you know is toxic or not even toxic but even just not christian but you've built your whole emotional life around him or her and the thought of

51:15 Jesus saying that has to go terrifies you. See, that's what the, that's what was going on with the garrisons. They adjusted. They made their peace with the screaming that was going on in their graveyard. And when Jesus showed up and fixed it, they were more afraid of the fix than they were of the disease in the first place. That's one thing that happened. Second thing that happened is for crying out loud they just wanted their pigs they just wanted their pigs and it's really that simple the sovereign of the universe had just come and recreated this destroyed man and they wanted him to leave because it cost them their swine man named john oxenham in the early 20th century wrote a poem about this i think he captures it just, just perfectly. It's the townspeople talking to Jesus after this, and he says, Rabbi, be gone. Thy powers bring loss to us and ours. Our ways are not as thine.

52:25 Thou lovest men. We lovest swine. Oh, get you hints, omnipotence, and take this healed fool of thine. His soul? What care we for his soul? What good is it to us that you have made him whole when we have lost our swine? Thou lovest men, but we, oh, we love our swine.

53:05 Friend, what are your pigs? We all have them, the pigs, the things we value more than Jesus, the things we're desperate to hold on to that keep us from surrendering to Jesus. Maybe it's that relationship that you know isn't right, but the thought of the loneliness on the other side terrifies you more than the sin of staying. Maybe that's your pig. Maybe it's financial security, the money that you think gives you control over something in your life. Maybe it's your reputation because you know or at least you think you know that following Jesus would get you mocked at work.

53:40 Maybe it's just this comfortable, undisturbed life. Maybe it's your pride that I've never been a religious person and I'm not going to start now. Those are your pigs. And you can ask Jesus to leave so you can keep your pigs or you can let them go and you can have Jesus. but there's the cut there's the bite you cannot have the sovereign of the universe you cannot have the savior on your own terms but now look at 38 39 the man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him but Jesus sent him away saying return to your home and declare how much God has done for you and he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him what a contrast yeah what a difference the people want jesus just go away get out of here the demoniac is like can i go with you jesus tells him no go home and declare what god has done and he does but notice too that

54:45 luke by the way says that the demoniac tells everyone what jesus has done because what jesus has done is what God has done. You see the point of all this? It's the same Jesus, and it's the same authority, but you get two opposite responses. This former demoniac embraces Jesus and tells others about him. The townspeople want him out of here. So what's the dividing line? Well, it's that the demoniac knew what he had been saved from. He remembered his chains. He remembered the tombs and the caves and the destruction.

55:23 And because he knew that, he knew what Jesus was worth. The townspeople didn't even think he was worth a bunch of pigs. Some of you I know are sitting right where this demoniac is at. You know the darkness. You remember the chains because you've lived it. If that's true, praise God because Jesus has just walked into your graveyard to find you. It's not because you called him. It's not because you send him a letter, it's because that's what he does. Some of you are right there. Others of you though, you're the townspeople. You'd rather he just left. You'd rather this sermon be over right now because you value your pigs. But let me tell you what happens in the end.

56:12 Your pigs are going to go over the cliff. Every single thing that you're clutching instead of Jesus is on an unstoppable trajectory toward destruction. So let them go and trust him. As Dostoevsky tells that story, Ivan Karamazov never gets the answer. Is there anybody who can stand against this evil? and stop it? And who's willing to do so? He never got an answer. Christ just kisses the old inquisitor. He walks away totally silent, never says a word. But you know who got that answer?

56:51 You know who got the answer to that question? The disciples got it. And you and I get it through their eyewitness and through their words. On a sinking boat, when everything's about to capsize them, when the chaos and the abyss is about to swallow them, they heard the word. They heard Jesus speak, and the chaos obeyed. And that word of recreation that Jesus gave to that demoniac, it's not finished.

57:24 It wasn't a one-time thing. Jesus is still in the business of recreating destroyed people. And even more, there's a day coming when every single dark power in the universe is going to be silenced forever. And that word may not be coming on your timetable, but I promise you, because the Bible promises you, it will come. So yeah, absolutely, there are plenty of reasons in this world to be afraid. But trust the one who has absolute authority over every dark thing that threatens you.

57:55 He has come to us, and he is not silent anymore. Let's pray. our lord we thank you that you are a good and faithful god and we pray oh lord that as we think about these things that you would put them deep into our hearts so that we might know you more and trust you more deeply we pray this in jesus name amen